The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-03-11
A Startling Physiological Fact.

A Startling fnySlolOglcai FacL
The Chicago Tribune makes the
queer statement that John A. Logan
got his swarthiness, his Indian features,
his black, straight hair and black eyes,
not from his own mother, who was his
fathers second wife, but from the faith
er's first wife, who died several years
before John A. was born. The lady in
question was of mixed Indian and
French blood. and both amiabe and
beautiful. Had she known how her
characteristics of face and hair, and
perhaps of disposition--and the sena.
tors nature had many Indian peculiarl-
ties would be restored long after her
death through processes which might
easily be mentioned as miraculous, she
would doubtless have been overwhelm-
cd by the responsibility thus visited up
on her, and perhaps might have died
ut an even earlier period The case is
not remarkable one, however, if one
may believe DIR. James Robarts, of
Carbonate. warm friend 10 the father
of the gentleman. and of the latter's rs
well, and who tells the Tribune that it
is physiological fact ''that the first
child by n second marriage frequently
resembles the deceased wife or husband
to an extraordinary degree" and that
General Logan's case is the most Won
derful illustration Of the fact he ever
heard of.
AT the outbreak of the war General
Logan was fierce, uncompromising
Democrat. There are said TO be letters
from him in the archives Oft Conicd-
crate government offering his services
to Jefferson Davis; and that he was the
author of the "black laws" of Illinois,
passed at the outbreak of the rebellion
and prohibiting the harboring or feed
ing of black men unknown within the
state-thc purpose Of the law beng the
protection OF the insurrcct onary slave
holders-has not been denied. These
are unfortunate facts in the history of
General Logan, but history has no
right to overlook them even at this
brief distance from his lamentcd de-
parture; and indeed the rough. bluff,
honest, aight-iorward, soldierly man
would, if he might speak, ask for him
self no favors of that kind.
We note the sudden transition of Lo-
gan from the Confederate to the Fed
eral side of the civil disturbance with
the purpose. however, not of criticism;
but of explanation. 1t is used here
merely rs text. Doubtless the incon-
sistencv was due to the French Indian
lady who passed on before Logan came,
and who was necessarily ignorant OF
many points in the controversy, an UNI
derstanding of which would have made
her truly loyal without question and
beyond doubt. When she lived, moer-
over, slavery was recognized as a legit-
innate institut on, odd MS that may seem
now; and her natural Discrimination to
recognize the black as man and a
brother descended upon the inhcrtor
of her pecularities through the kind.
ness of another lady like an unmXed
blessing warranted sound as to ortho
doxy and Immediately pure in every
respect.
Enlarging little upon the physio-
logical theory presented by DR.. Rob.
arts, how wonderfully various are the
influences which go to make up the
complete babe, to say nothing of the
fully developed man or woman! The
parental cause extends back to the sew
eral ladies courted by the ia ther and
grandfather and so on world without |
beginning. the winds of the centuries
blowing the production hot and cold
without regard for any kind of harmo-
nious comb nation; but far more won
derful are the ante-natal influences, as.
for instance, the traits one inherits
from his step-mother and father along |
from his part of the generations yet I'M
born. We pause here. 1t is a subject
which requires more attention than we
can give il just now. 1t is a wonderful
world, and verify no man shall know n .
millonth part of it until he graduates
into some higher intellectual sphere.